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ASU Laboratories of Archaeological Science
This past year was a very good one. First, Dean Linda Bennett granted us a fill-time position for an Assistant Director. Scott Shumate has considerable experience in a range of historical archaeological sites from Monticello and the Hermitage, as well as prehistoric sites through 19th and 20th century Anglo-American homesteads in the Southern Appalachians, Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre Mountains of southeastern Wyoming, and South Carolina. From 1982 to 1990, he worked on a variety of sites in Virginia, Florida, England, Peru, and Russia (2000), but he majority of his historic archaeological experience has come from nearly six years of supervisory fieldwork and lab experience at Monticello and two seasons of field supervisory work at Germanna. In addition, he served as field supervisor for one summer session of excavations at the Hermitage of Tennessee. Scott Shumate holds a B.S. from Radford University, Virginia and an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Tennessee. His thesis is entitled Georgian Worldview: Its Definition, History, and Influence on the Material World of Thomas Jefferson, which focuses on late eighteenth-century context and culture and their representation in the domestic architecture of Jefferson's Mulberry Row outbuildings at Monticello. Scott has been busy working on a wide range of archeological projects, including work for three new clients: Biltmore Estates, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USCOE), and the Eastern Band of Cherokees.
Recent ASULAS projects include the following:
Fort Defiance in Lenoir (with Cricket Hefner and the Appalachian State archaeological fieldschool of 2000 directed by Dr. Cheryl Claassen) - the homeplace of William Lenoir (1792), Revolutionary War hero at the battle of Kings Mountain (remember the Mel Gibson movie The Patriot?) and first president of the University of North Carolina.
Blue Ridge Lake (TVA) archaeological survey write-up (undertaken by Dr. Brett Riggs) where Riggs and Kimball found 84 sites in the winter of 1993-94.
Schenck (31TV758) excavations - along the Davidson River in Pisgah National Forest. Shumate excavated a site with Terminal Archaic (C-14 date = 550+-40 B.C.) and a buried early Holocene stratum (C-14 date = 873 +-70 B.C.).
McCombs Slave Quarter (Cherokee County) NCDOT project analysis and report prepared by Shumate. Kimball excavated the site in Spring-Summer 1999; and now, finally, we have the results of this investigation. It is a very tight 1845-1865 cultural assemblage from three slave cabins, and represents the only slave cabin site ever excavated in the Southern Appalachians.
Biltmore Estate (Asheville). In a new partnership with the Biltmore Estate, ASULAS began an archaeological survey in October 2000. Shumate located six new sites and testes one other. The most important site included a stratified (7 levels) Middle Woodland Connestee hamlet (or small village) with great preservation of faunal and botanical remains, numerous pit features, postholes indicating the presence of houses, and lots of artifacts - including Flint Ridge chalcedony blades (from southern Ohio), chert from eastern Tennessee, cut mica objects (from western NC), and ceramics from northern Georgia. As more area is excavated we expect to find ceramics from other areas, fired clay figures, and even such Hopewellian exotics as alligator teeth, fossil shark's teeth, and crafted objects from copper or galena. These Hopewellian objects have only been found at two other sites in western NC - Garden Creek near Canton and Peachtree near Murphy. Other important sites which Shumate tested include: a Pisgah hamlet with postholes and pit features, two mid-late 19th-century Anglo-American farmsteads, and the Alexander house site where George Washington Vanderbilt and his family resided while Biltmore was being constructed. We hope to be at the Biltmore in early summer working on the Middle Woodland site.
South Fork New River (USCOE). Tom Whyte braved the cold winter to undertake this archaeological survey in the Town of Boone in January 2001! The Corps of Engineers will be constructing a flood control system along the river between State Farm and the National Guard Armory.
Cold Canyon (31Sw265), Nantahala National Forest. This project involves excavation of a stratified Middle to Late Archaic campsite evincing repeated occupations throughout the period from ~6000 to ~1000 years ago. After three separate campaigns, Shumate has completed the data recovery investigation of this well-stratified Middle through Late Archaic site. Seven distinct, artifact-bearing strata were observed and rock-filled pit-hearths, steatite bowl fragments, project points, a textile impression preserved in fired clay, nutting and milling stones, hammerstones, and tool rough-outs and preforms from all stages of lithic reduction also were found.
Kituwah - the "mother-town" of the Middle Cherokee. In early May 2001 Scott Shumate led a University team working with Dr. Brett Riggs (now Deputy Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) to map the locations of postholes, hearths, pit features, etc. on six archaeological sites on the Kituwah tract. This represents a 4% sample of the sites and permits a better understanding of the location and densities of features and structures. Two other teams (Dr. Berle Clay and Dr. Gerald Schroedl) undertook remote sensing (proton magnetometer, resistivity, and conductivity) on these sites and the Kituwah ceremonial center itself. James Bird (Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Eastern Band of Cherokee) gave a talk "What Archaeology Means to the Cherokee" in Kimball's World Prehistory class on March 27, 2001.
Weasel Cave . Early in the Fall semester, archaeologists Larry Kimball, Tom Whyte, and Scott Shumate traveled to the Caucasus Mountains of North Osettia to work with Dr. Nazim Hidjrati at the site of Weasel Cave. This was the fifth trip to the site for Kimball and the first of Whyte and Shumate. They were joined by colleague Todd Koetje of Western Washington University. The American Team had the privilege of excavating in Middle Paleolithic (Neandertal) deposits dating to more than 70,000 years ago while Dr. Hidjrati was uncovering archaeological remains possibly exceeding 500,000 years in age!
This was the 20th year of investigations by Nazim Hidjrati. Kimball being the smallest of the group working in a very small shaft where the 3rd entrance into Dormouse Hall is expected to lie. Shumate cleaned and drew (so well that Nazim asked him to sign the drawing) a 3m plus profile in Dormouse Hall, which is below Weasel Cave. Whyte, Koetje, and Shumate worked on the very rich (in stone artifacts and faunal remains) Layer 12, estimated to be ~70,000 years ago. Nazim worked in the Deep Unit which is now over 35 meters below datum! He documented six more volcanic ash layers with archaeological levels between. In the deepest layer (35) he found three possible flaked tools made on a nonlocal dolostone - all tools in Weasel Cave found to date are made of a near-local orthoquartzite or Georgian(?) flint. So, this may represent a different lithic technology in the 300,000 year old layer. Plans are underway for the group and perhaps another American archaeologist to return in August/September 2001 for more work.
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